MedPLUS Connect Celebrates 5 Years!

This year marks the fifth year since we’ve been incorporated. In the past 5 years we have shipped 273,605 pounds of medical supplies worth over 2 million dollars, beginning with our first shipment of medical supplies to the Lawra District Hospital in 2008. After winning first prize and the people’s choice award in the Carolina Challenge in 2009, we were able to fully incorporate and send our first full 40ft container. In total we have now sent 16 shipments of recovered medical supplies to Ghana!

Of our 16 total shipments, 10 were hospital specific containers. In 2011 we expanded to sending regional shipments, where the supplies in each container are distributed among a range of hospitals and health centers throughout the recipient region. In total, these regional containers have reached 17 hospitals and 60 health centers throughout the Upper East and Northern Regions, most of which are located in highly rural areas.

In total, these shipments have contained 252 hospital & examination beds, 1,699,894 exam & surgical gloves, and 215 pieces of medical equipment. We have been able to send high-end pieces of equipment such as anesthesia machines, ultrasounds, and autoclaves in addition to hundreds of crutches, wheelchairs, and IV poles as well as over a million consumable supplies such as syringes, needles, bandages and gloves. One of the most touching stories we’ve heard is from Dr. Abraham at the Karaga Polyclinic, a health center in the Northern Region that had recently upgraded to a hospital. As part of a regional shipment, the Karaga Polyclinic received an oxygen concentrator. Before this shipment, Dr. Abraham had never seen an oxygen concentrator in person. In writing to us after receiving the machine, he told us that it had arrived just in time to save a patient’s life who was suffering from a severe chest infection.

In the 5 years since our incorporation we have also undertaken several valuable projects in addition to sending shipments of vital medical supplies. We saw the Lawra Nutrition Rehabilitation Center evolve from its inception in 2009 to the completion of construction in 2013. In 2010 we also partnered with a Ghanaian-based NGO called EVCO Africa to establish a computer library at Weichau Health Center. Our latest undertaking is establishing the first cervical cancer screening and treatment program in the Upper West Region of Ghana. We are excited to look back on what we have accomplished so far and also to look forward to the future as we continue bringing healthcare to underserved areas of Ghana in the next 5 years.

A girl in Lawra, Ghana watches as supplies from a shipment are unloaded and taken to the Lawra District Hospital